Monday was my last day at school. It has been surreal that my time here is up. When I first saw that I could student teach abroad I didn't think I would ever want to do that. One day I just said, "What the heck" and went to a meeting. Since that day I made the best decision of my life! This experience has changed me so much not only as a future educator but as a person as cliche as that sounds. Barcelona is a beautiful city and I have stayed with an amazing family that has taught me how to love no matter what. There are 5 kids in the family and every single moment it is crazy. Of course I only have one brother, who is older, and he never annoyed me like I did him haha Even though there are 5 kids and at times it was overwhelming, I could not ask for a better family. I truly feel like I am their 6th child. Patricia and Nacho are role model parents. Even when they are mad they still roll their eyes and laugh after getting after the kids. Every day they make sure that I am doing okay and they always ask me questions whether it is about the US or about my family or Ben. Oh, and about how old they are. It is a joke between us how much older than they are than me so they talk about these American groups or songs from back in the day (mom and dad it's music you listen to ;) ) and they automatically think I have never heard it and how they say I am too young. Well, my parents are old :D and so I tell them I actually do know the song/group and start singing with them i.e. the beetles, blues brothers, elvis etc.
Now I want to talk about the school that I have been student teaching at for the past month and I will get back to the family business. Like the title of the post Monday was my last day at school. As excited as I am to graduate and to be done student teaching so that I can start my journey as a teacher, I do not want this experience to end. At school all of the kids were so sad. Every class both boys and girls would hug and cling to me and beg me to stay. One girl even said I could sleep at her house if I needed to haha The boys who always give me a hard time (5C) tackled me in the hallway and starting hugging me, I definitely did not expect that out of them! They are hooligans! Throughout the day it was surreal that I would not see these kids anymore!!! During our lunch break the teachers put together a luncheon at the school library. There was pizza, coke, Bailey's chocolate, and of course presents! Each of us got a school t-shirt which are VERY nice, a yearbook from last year, a lanyard with a note from our teacher, and the newest school journal that they publish each month. We took pictures and enjoyed our lunch and then it was my last class of the day with my sweet girls! It was heart breaking. Maria wrote me a note and made me a bracelet and the girls all wanted my email address to write me, so I am hoping for tons of emails in the future to stay in contact with them! I said my goodbye's to the kids and to Rudy. I didn't feel like it was real, I just thought to myself I will be back. But who knows?! I actually may! ;)
Today we had the day off from school to do last minute things and to say goodbye to the city we have grown to love. Abby, Tayler and I met at 8 and started our last minute sight seeing at Olympic village, Mount Tibidabo, Monjuic, Camp Nou, and of course SHOPPING! When we went to Monjuic, come to find out it wasn't on! We wanted to see it during the day and then again at night to see the light show, well it only happens at night on Thursday, Friday and Saturday! We missed out!! When we went to Tibidabo for my 3rd time with the last time being a fail, we actually made it! We rode the bus to where I wanted to eat lunch (it is where Nacho said to go) and then we got on a lift that took us to the top of the mountain. The sight was amazing. We could see the entire city right in front of us! There is also an amusement park and a church at the top. We went inside the church and of course it was pretty. So many paintings. After we were finished, we went and ate across the street from La Verna (we couldn't read their menu so we went were Nacho said had good drinks). We sat at a table that overlooked the city and listened to the kids playing outside at school. There was a huge opening instead of windows and it was perfect for a day like today. Once we ate lunch we shopped until we dropped! So many things to get!!! Tayler definitely beat Abby and I on the packages! She could barely walk down the tram aisle without hitting people sitting down.
When I got home Brenda (the nanny) taught me how to make the spanish omelets. I helped peel the potatoes (she laughed as I attempted). I am awful at this but I got better by the end of the night haha The finished product was the best. I cannot wait to attempt to make it at home! Patricia also showed me how to make the red peepers that I love and we have pa amb tomaquet since these are the 3 things that I am dying to make back home. When we ate dinner Guillermo told me how he has enjoyed me staying at his house and I thought I was going to cry. I feel like I don't get too sentimental about things but boy, tonight is the night where I get emotional! After dinner we took pictures with each other and had a good time playing with everyone. Nacho told me how they made the right choice in having me stay (thank goodness) and that anytime I am around Barcelona there home is always open under one condition... next time I bring KY Bourbon haha He said that once he answers the door he will ask okay where is the Bourbon. If I don't have it I have to stay somewhere else haha Hopefully they will get to come to KY and see my home and I can take them places like they did with me. After the pictures were taken, Pablo and Jorge kept saying "Kelsey no leave, no leave." and crying. Broke my heart especially because I won't see them in the morning before I leave. These 2 were so scared of me the first day and tonight I couldn't get Jorge to stop kissing me and he was wanting me to hold him! They also gave me a very pretty bracelet as a way to remember them always as Patricia said. Little does she know, I will never forget them.
Words cannot express the emotions that you go through with staying with a family who you don't even know and you grow into their family in one month. I know that I am probably rambling trying to get all of my emotions in this blog but bare with me. This family has turned me into a girl who barely tried new things into trying, slimy red peppers, potato and onion omelets, weird/raw meat, green olives, chick peas, slimy beans that I am still not sure what the heck they were, smearing tomato and garlic on toast drenched with oil and salt, eating french fries and chicken nuggets with a fork and knife, and many other things. I adapted to their culture and I do not think that I could have done that if I was not with them. As kind hearted as they are, I don't see how I could ever forget them even if I tried. Hopefully, I will see them again some day!!!
Kelsey
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
The City of Love
Paris was amazing! I had little hope with this city because all I heard was negative things about it. I heard it was a huge disappointment and how dirty it was. So going into this trip I really didn't care much and had zero expectations other than to see the Eiffel Tower. However, my stay there changed my view. Paris is nowhere near dirty and it is gorgeous. I will rank it below Rome because Rome has a lot more things to see. BUT if you want to take a trip with your significant other Paris is the place to go! Couples were everywhere and all everyone said to me at school was how it is the city of love and that I better watch out haha well they were right it definitely is a city of love, we learned that by all of the people showing a lot of affection to their significant other to put it nicely.
When we arrived at the airport we bought tickets for a bus to take us close to downtown. It was an hour ride! We were exhausted since our plane left at 6AM and we arrived at 8ish and we had little sleep from the airport. Anyway we made our way to the metro after the bus ride and arrived at our hostel Aloha. It was a nice place to stay! You could actually see the Eiffel Tower! We left our things in the luggage room since we were not able to get into our room until later. We then went back to the metro to find where we needed to go for our Free Tour that I booked.
The Free Tour took us to 15 places I think. We went to Notre Dam, Louvre, the smallest street in Paris, the love bridge, statues, the garden, Arch De Triumph, the cursed steps (in the Divinci Code), and other places that I cannot think of right now- it is really later here. I will show pictures though. On the trip I did learn some things. If you look at a statue and there is someone on a horse you can actually tell how the person died. Now, don't take me word for word because I did not right this info down but I THINK that if the horse is on two legs then the person died in battle, one leg is he got stabbed or shot (I think I just made this up), and if no legs are up he died of old age. Also, teh river that flows through Paris I think it is the Sina River, well for a long long long time nothing could survive in the water. It was dirty and gross, our guide even said if we were to get in we would get really sick. Anyway, someone wanted to prove to the city that he changed the river and fish could survive there so he let a fish go in the river, well the fish ended up dying soon after. Now, only 300 fish live in there so it is gradually getting better. Also, by the cursed steps, there are engravings of people's faces. These faces were actually people who attended a party back in the day!! Crazy! Also, the eternal flame actually went out a couple of times! The first time was because these backpackers were hungry and roasted marshmellows or hotdogs in the flame, they couldn't make a fire and they saw this one, well these intelligent backpackers thought you roasted hot dogs on a string! Well the hotdog fell off into the fire and put it out. They got taken to jail and told to never return to France again. Then another time a man got mad about some sporting event where his team lost to France and he ended up putting it out and he went to jail and was told to never return.
When we went to the Arch, we did not know how to cross over to go under neath of it, well, my stupidity, I just thought you ran across the street. Now, this road has a ton of traffic so it is kind of like playing Frogger. Once I thought there was a break in the traffic I told the girls to run like a mad man! Let's just say we came close to some cars driving right at us! When we got over we saw the stairs we were supposed to take underground to get from side to side...whoops.
We tried going to eat dinner at a place our tour guide said was good and cheap, but the line was forever long!!! I wish I could remember the name of it because obviously it is known for their food! But after we ate at an Indiana place, we went to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night. When we were on teh metro we actually ran into Elvis! haha he was singing in one of the metro stations. But once we got to where we needed to be, the Eiffel Tower was gorgeous! At one point it actually starting to glitter. Lights were flashing all around it! People were out in the lawn eating pizza and drinking wine. It was amazing.
Sunday morning we woke up early to go back to the Eiffel Tower and actually go up to the top! I posted a video on Facebook if you want to see. We didn't wait in line hardly at all only 30 minutes once it opened. When we got to the top it was breath taking! We could see all of the places we visited on Saturday and the entire city! Once we got down to the ground we took some pictures in the grass area and our picture actually ended up on Study Abroad's Facebook page! For lunch we went to the Latin neighborhood again and ate at a restaurant that was very good! I had lasagna and we got a bottle of wine. It was the best lasagna that I have had... Sorry mom. Afterwards we went to notre dam and wanted to go in this time but it was too long of a wait. We didn't have time because of our flight back home.
Instead we went to get dessert! On the way to get dessert we went to the love bridge. there are 2 different ones. one bridge the government removes all of the locks every 6 months because the locks are so heavy that the bridge may fall according to what our tour guide told us. originally you were supposed to put a lock on the bridge and throw the key away in the river. On the lock you decorate it putting you and your "lovers" name on there. The love bridge we went to supposedly the government doesn't remove the locks because it is a sturdy bridge- again according to our tour guide. Well I ended up putting a combination lock on the bridge for Ben and I! It was last minute and I had one with me for the hostels so I thought, why not?! On my way trying to find a spot I found a lock where a boy proposed on the lock!! It gave me goose bumps! Haha her answer was on there too! Also on the bridge newlyweds were throwing their key in the river.
Now it was time to get dessert And let me tell you this place was yummy! We saw a lot of people eating waffles and crepes in a black box so we were on a mission to find the place and we did! Abby an I got a waffle that had melted chocolate drizzled on top with whipped cream and a little bit of powdered sugar. Tayler waited in a long line for some ice cream. It was so good!
Now it was time to go back to the airport! We were so tired that we slept the whole way there! We got to the airport around 6:30 and our flight didn't leave until 9:05. It took awhile to get through security and get our passports checked because we went to the wrong terminal and then the Ryanair lady was so rude to us! She wouldn't let me take my purse out of my backpack when going through security she kind of yelled at me and so I put it back in and then got it out without her seeing! It's not like we were boarding the plane yet!
Any way we got some snacks until it was time to board. When we got to the Barcelona airport we had to hurry to the train and pray that the metro wouldn't shut down since they closed at midnight. By the time we got on and off of all the metros we made it just in time! Our last metro we needed to get on was shutting down after they took us to our stop thank goodness! I got home around 12:30AM but didn't go to sleep until 2! Gah school was so tiring and being sick didn't help much either!
When we arrived at the airport we bought tickets for a bus to take us close to downtown. It was an hour ride! We were exhausted since our plane left at 6AM and we arrived at 8ish and we had little sleep from the airport. Anyway we made our way to the metro after the bus ride and arrived at our hostel Aloha. It was a nice place to stay! You could actually see the Eiffel Tower! We left our things in the luggage room since we were not able to get into our room until later. We then went back to the metro to find where we needed to go for our Free Tour that I booked.
The Free Tour took us to 15 places I think. We went to Notre Dam, Louvre, the smallest street in Paris, the love bridge, statues, the garden, Arch De Triumph, the cursed steps (in the Divinci Code), and other places that I cannot think of right now- it is really later here. I will show pictures though. On the trip I did learn some things. If you look at a statue and there is someone on a horse you can actually tell how the person died. Now, don't take me word for word because I did not right this info down but I THINK that if the horse is on two legs then the person died in battle, one leg is he got stabbed or shot (I think I just made this up), and if no legs are up he died of old age. Also, teh river that flows through Paris I think it is the Sina River, well for a long long long time nothing could survive in the water. It was dirty and gross, our guide even said if we were to get in we would get really sick. Anyway, someone wanted to prove to the city that he changed the river and fish could survive there so he let a fish go in the river, well the fish ended up dying soon after. Now, only 300 fish live in there so it is gradually getting better. Also, by the cursed steps, there are engravings of people's faces. These faces were actually people who attended a party back in the day!! Crazy! Also, the eternal flame actually went out a couple of times! The first time was because these backpackers were hungry and roasted marshmellows or hotdogs in the flame, they couldn't make a fire and they saw this one, well these intelligent backpackers thought you roasted hot dogs on a string! Well the hotdog fell off into the fire and put it out. They got taken to jail and told to never return to France again. Then another time a man got mad about some sporting event where his team lost to France and he ended up putting it out and he went to jail and was told to never return.
When we went to the Arch, we did not know how to cross over to go under neath of it, well, my stupidity, I just thought you ran across the street. Now, this road has a ton of traffic so it is kind of like playing Frogger. Once I thought there was a break in the traffic I told the girls to run like a mad man! Let's just say we came close to some cars driving right at us! When we got over we saw the stairs we were supposed to take underground to get from side to side...whoops.
We tried going to eat dinner at a place our tour guide said was good and cheap, but the line was forever long!!! I wish I could remember the name of it because obviously it is known for their food! But after we ate at an Indiana place, we went to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night. When we were on teh metro we actually ran into Elvis! haha he was singing in one of the metro stations. But once we got to where we needed to be, the Eiffel Tower was gorgeous! At one point it actually starting to glitter. Lights were flashing all around it! People were out in the lawn eating pizza and drinking wine. It was amazing.
Sunday morning we woke up early to go back to the Eiffel Tower and actually go up to the top! I posted a video on Facebook if you want to see. We didn't wait in line hardly at all only 30 minutes once it opened. When we got to the top it was breath taking! We could see all of the places we visited on Saturday and the entire city! Once we got down to the ground we took some pictures in the grass area and our picture actually ended up on Study Abroad's Facebook page! For lunch we went to the Latin neighborhood again and ate at a restaurant that was very good! I had lasagna and we got a bottle of wine. It was the best lasagna that I have had... Sorry mom. Afterwards we went to notre dam and wanted to go in this time but it was too long of a wait. We didn't have time because of our flight back home.
Instead we went to get dessert! On the way to get dessert we went to the love bridge. there are 2 different ones. one bridge the government removes all of the locks every 6 months because the locks are so heavy that the bridge may fall according to what our tour guide told us. originally you were supposed to put a lock on the bridge and throw the key away in the river. On the lock you decorate it putting you and your "lovers" name on there. The love bridge we went to supposedly the government doesn't remove the locks because it is a sturdy bridge- again according to our tour guide. Well I ended up putting a combination lock on the bridge for Ben and I! It was last minute and I had one with me for the hostels so I thought, why not?! On my way trying to find a spot I found a lock where a boy proposed on the lock!! It gave me goose bumps! Haha her answer was on there too! Also on the bridge newlyweds were throwing their key in the river.
Now it was time to get dessert And let me tell you this place was yummy! We saw a lot of people eating waffles and crepes in a black box so we were on a mission to find the place and we did! Abby an I got a waffle that had melted chocolate drizzled on top with whipped cream and a little bit of powdered sugar. Tayler waited in a long line for some ice cream. It was so good!
Now it was time to go back to the airport! We were so tired that we slept the whole way there! We got to the airport around 6:30 and our flight didn't leave until 9:05. It took awhile to get through security and get our passports checked because we went to the wrong terminal and then the Ryanair lady was so rude to us! She wouldn't let me take my purse out of my backpack when going through security she kind of yelled at me and so I put it back in and then got it out without her seeing! It's not like we were boarding the plane yet!
Any way we got some snacks until it was time to board. When we got to the Barcelona airport we had to hurry to the train and pray that the metro wouldn't shut down since they closed at midnight. By the time we got on and off of all the metros we made it just in time! Our last metro we needed to get on was shutting down after they took us to our stop thank goodness! I got home around 12:30AM but didn't go to sleep until 2! Gah school was so tiring and being sick didn't help much either!
Night in the airport
Wow so I have a lot to tell you all about my trip to Paris! To start
let me tell you about our little adventure on Friday night! After
school we packed and got ready for our slumber party in the airport. We
met at school at 8 and went to Las Ramblas to eat dinner. Well the
dinner turned out to last for about 3 hours! It took forever to get our
check, when we finally paid it was 11PM or so. So we were on our way
to the airport! Little did we know that we would run in to some minor
bumps a long the way haha. We went on the metro towards out Sants stop
which is where the train is that takes you straight to the airport. We
got there and on the board it said that it was stopping at some place at
00:06 which we all thought meant that train would get there in 6
seconds, which 6 seconds later it didn't show up. So when it finally
came, I am not joking, every single person left the platform. But we
didn't want to leave because that wasn't our bus the one that was to the
airport said was leaving at 05:20 or something along those lines. so
we assumed that meant in 5 minutes or whichever. As the people were
getting on the train, these young boys were waving us on the train and
saying things in spanish but we just ignored them. Now we know why they
were waving us on... the next train wasn't until 5AM!!!!! When I
looked at my watch I figured out why it said 00:06 that means
12:06AM...blondes. When we came to that realization there was an
announcement that the station was closing! We panicked! We were not
about to stay the night in a train station on the concrete floor with
trash everywhere! AH! We hurried out of the station back to a metro
trying to figure out where to go and how the heck we were going to get
to the airport. We changed metros twice and went to a stop that we
thought was close to the airport. When we got off and walked up the
stairs, it looked like we were in the middle of nowhere. Mind you it is
close to 1AM if not later and we had no idea what to do! We were just
going to find a taxi but this place was deserted. We kept walking and
thankfully I saw some taxis. We got in one and arrived safe and sound
at the airport.
When we arrived pretty much all of the lights were out and we panicked thinking they were not open. We walk up to the door and go figure you can't get in! We were too the point where I just said well looks like we will just sleep outside! haha There were these boys that were watching us from the inside and pointed us towards our left to keep walking. We walked and walked then found where we could enter! To makes things even better as soon as we walked in, they were doing construction!! Workers were going to town hammering and drilling things. It was awful! We walked down the hall and found a dark corner to sleep, well if you want to call it sleep! It was SO cold in the airport. I slept in this fur coat that Patricia gave me since she said Paris would be cold. But that still didn't help! The tile floor was freezing, Tayler actually laid out some of her clothes to sleep on top of. I could not get comfortable so I sat up against the wall with my back pack in front of me and bowed my head on my backpack as a pillow, that lasted maybe an hour if that until I went numb and my legs fell asleep! We woke up around 4 to one of the police officers or whoever speaking spanish, we assumed he was saying we needed to go. If you are reading this and you need to stay in the airport, GET THERE EARLY AND GO THROUGH SECURITY. My friends, we lived and we learned this. Once we got through and saw the benches that had some cushion that you could lay down on.. we were in heaven and slept 30 minutes more.
The picture below is us at our sleeping spot! Tayler is the only one showing how we really felt haha
When we arrived pretty much all of the lights were out and we panicked thinking they were not open. We walk up to the door and go figure you can't get in! We were too the point where I just said well looks like we will just sleep outside! haha There were these boys that were watching us from the inside and pointed us towards our left to keep walking. We walked and walked then found where we could enter! To makes things even better as soon as we walked in, they were doing construction!! Workers were going to town hammering and drilling things. It was awful! We walked down the hall and found a dark corner to sleep, well if you want to call it sleep! It was SO cold in the airport. I slept in this fur coat that Patricia gave me since she said Paris would be cold. But that still didn't help! The tile floor was freezing, Tayler actually laid out some of her clothes to sleep on top of. I could not get comfortable so I sat up against the wall with my back pack in front of me and bowed my head on my backpack as a pillow, that lasted maybe an hour if that until I went numb and my legs fell asleep! We woke up around 4 to one of the police officers or whoever speaking spanish, we assumed he was saying we needed to go. If you are reading this and you need to stay in the airport, GET THERE EARLY AND GO THROUGH SECURITY. My friends, we lived and we learned this. Once we got through and saw the benches that had some cushion that you could lay down on.. we were in heaven and slept 30 minutes more.
The picture below is us at our sleeping spot! Tayler is the only one showing how we really felt haha
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Mount Tibidabo Take 2
At school today I had a huge headache! I think this whole not sleeping thing is getting to me and being non-stop 24/7! Thankfully it went away later on in the school day though. In my grade 3 class of boys it was insane. A student got expelled from school because of what he did in class. We were playing soccer and long story short Rudy was on his team and Rudy had the soccer ball, well the boy took Rudy's feet out from under him by slide tackling him... his own teammate. Well Rudy fell down and ended up tearing a hole in his pants on his right knee and even skinned up his knee! What happened next was crazy! I'll save the details but let's just say I would have gotten fired in the US if I acted the way he did...my mouth actually hung open for a good 3 minutes. Wow. Crazy boys...and to think they are only in 3rd grade and I am almost positive the boy did not apologize!!!
Today was also my last day for my sweet sweet sweet little girls! I'll attach a picture below of the whole class and I. They are so precious. All they do is kiss me and hang on to me. One of the girls actually asked her mom if it was okay if I stayed the night with her!! haha I tried to tell her that I couldn't I had plans. So then she wanted to take me to her house to play instead of stay the night. I cannot go anywhere in the school without one of them tugging on me and holding my hand or kissing my cheek or even my arms! It is crazy.
After school Tayler, Abby and I tried to find a way to the top of the mountain other than walking, since that would take an unbelievable amount of time. We walked, and walked, and walked, and could not find the "lift" that takes you up there! We walked back down the mountain and go figure, we found where the lift picks you up, which was right by our metro stop that we got off of! ay yi yi! We didn't go back up because the lift was closed plus Tayler and I had to get back home to tutor our kids in English.
When I got home, Guillermo and I studied for his English competition on Saturday. Hopefully I am teaching him the right things!! If he doesn't win I'll be so sad because he is amazing at speaking English and he is excited to win the big prize. The prize is a summer camp in some country where they learn English and what not. It sounds pretty neat. At dinner we had ham omlets which I learned are french omelets, pa amb tomaquet, and rice. Nacho is very proud that I love the bread and says that when I go back to Kentucky I am going to open the first ever pa amb tomaquet shop and how everyone will love it! If you are reading this, you better not steal my idea...but if you do I get a share in the income ;) Patricia showed me everything about Paris for this weekend, all the places to visit, where the best place to eat is, and how to get to places. She is so excited that I am going since it is her favorite place of all time. She has already been 5 times and she showed me where she normally stays. When Patricia told Nacho that I am going to stay the night in the airport tomorrow he about had a stroke haha He couldn't believe anyone would actually do that. I tried to explain that it would be fun and he thought I was insane. But hey it beats waking up at 3AM to find a ride to the airport! They are going to make me a spanish omelet for dinner so I can eat it in the airport!
Oh and if you don't know this, in my Health class that I am currently taking I have had to do so many presentations on Head Lice. I am a professional now when it comes to that, no joke. Well guess what??? I come home from school and Alejandra has lice!!!!! I knew exactly what to do and asked if she has already washed her hair with the shampoo, if she had the nit comb, and everything else. I was proud! It's funny though because once she told me she had lice my head starting itching! go figure. As you read this, you will probably scratch your head, I'll put money on it haha :D
Anyway I will update you all tomorrow on my adventure in the airport hopefully!
Today was also my last day for my sweet sweet sweet little girls! I'll attach a picture below of the whole class and I. They are so precious. All they do is kiss me and hang on to me. One of the girls actually asked her mom if it was okay if I stayed the night with her!! haha I tried to tell her that I couldn't I had plans. So then she wanted to take me to her house to play instead of stay the night. I cannot go anywhere in the school without one of them tugging on me and holding my hand or kissing my cheek or even my arms! It is crazy.
After school Tayler, Abby and I tried to find a way to the top of the mountain other than walking, since that would take an unbelievable amount of time. We walked, and walked, and walked, and could not find the "lift" that takes you up there! We walked back down the mountain and go figure, we found where the lift picks you up, which was right by our metro stop that we got off of! ay yi yi! We didn't go back up because the lift was closed plus Tayler and I had to get back home to tutor our kids in English.
When I got home, Guillermo and I studied for his English competition on Saturday. Hopefully I am teaching him the right things!! If he doesn't win I'll be so sad because he is amazing at speaking English and he is excited to win the big prize. The prize is a summer camp in some country where they learn English and what not. It sounds pretty neat. At dinner we had ham omlets which I learned are french omelets, pa amb tomaquet, and rice. Nacho is very proud that I love the bread and says that when I go back to Kentucky I am going to open the first ever pa amb tomaquet shop and how everyone will love it! If you are reading this, you better not steal my idea...but if you do I get a share in the income ;) Patricia showed me everything about Paris for this weekend, all the places to visit, where the best place to eat is, and how to get to places. She is so excited that I am going since it is her favorite place of all time. She has already been 5 times and she showed me where she normally stays. When Patricia told Nacho that I am going to stay the night in the airport tomorrow he about had a stroke haha He couldn't believe anyone would actually do that. I tried to explain that it would be fun and he thought I was insane. But hey it beats waking up at 3AM to find a ride to the airport! They are going to make me a spanish omelet for dinner so I can eat it in the airport!
Oh and if you don't know this, in my Health class that I am currently taking I have had to do so many presentations on Head Lice. I am a professional now when it comes to that, no joke. Well guess what??? I come home from school and Alejandra has lice!!!!! I knew exactly what to do and asked if she has already washed her hair with the shampoo, if she had the nit comb, and everything else. I was proud! It's funny though because once she told me she had lice my head starting itching! go figure. As you read this, you will probably scratch your head, I'll put money on it haha :D
Anyway I will update you all tomorrow on my adventure in the airport hopefully!
Labor Day=NO SCHOOL!!
Hola! Today was a VERY long day! The girls and I headed to Sagrada La Familia obviously to see the church. We adventured out at 8:30 and finally got into the church a little past 10 AM. The line was so long to get in! It was amazing how all of these churches are so gorgeous. You walk in and there are stained glass windows, statues, carvings, and in the center is the cross with Jesus hanging. It was amazing. We got a picture with our red towels in front so hopefully we make it on the WKU website!!! :)
After the church we looked at paintings that were set up outside on the street. I am still on the look out for mom a painting but every one of them are just so pretty it is hard to choose!! We walked down Las Ramblas and saw SO MANY barca fans cheering and being hooligans all day. It was so fun to see that! We ventured around the Gothic Area of Barcelona and made our way back towards the Picasso Museum, which was still closed, trying to find the chocolate museum. When we finally found it, of course it was closed! By this time my new boots that I bought were rubbing my toes raw, it was not smart of me to wear them! Thankfully I have no blisters which is a huge plus.
We decided to watch the soccer match down on Las Ramblas at a Sports Bar and it was a lot of fun but the waiters were so rude. We would ask to get a drink or food and he would snap at us like he didn't care. It was to the point at the end of the night we were scared to ask for our check! But the game- oh man was it painful to watch. They needed one heck of a miracle to advance. They ended up losing 3-0. At least they played better than last week!
Oh and Tayler received some exciting news! I took tons of pictures of the moment! I will only show one though, she would kill me if I showed all of them haha
After the church we looked at paintings that were set up outside on the street. I am still on the look out for mom a painting but every one of them are just so pretty it is hard to choose!! We walked down Las Ramblas and saw SO MANY barca fans cheering and being hooligans all day. It was so fun to see that! We ventured around the Gothic Area of Barcelona and made our way back towards the Picasso Museum, which was still closed, trying to find the chocolate museum. When we finally found it, of course it was closed! By this time my new boots that I bought were rubbing my toes raw, it was not smart of me to wear them! Thankfully I have no blisters which is a huge plus.
We decided to watch the soccer match down on Las Ramblas at a Sports Bar and it was a lot of fun but the waiters were so rude. We would ask to get a drink or food and he would snap at us like he didn't care. It was to the point at the end of the night we were scared to ask for our check! But the game- oh man was it painful to watch. They needed one heck of a miracle to advance. They ended up losing 3-0. At least they played better than last week!
Oh and Tayler received some exciting news! I took tons of pictures of the moment! I will only show one though, she would kill me if I showed all of them haha
Sagrada La Familia
Cathedral de Barcelona
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
The day before the holiday!
Everyone was so excited yesterday because today is a holiday which means NO SCHOOL!!!! Wahoo! Some of the kids were insane today. One student bit another teacher and ended up running down the halls from teh disciplianary teacher while he was chasing him then both of my boys classes were awful. 4 boys got expelled from class and Rudy was not a happy camper with them! I was scared to even smile it was that bad. They would not form a straight line and they kept hitting each other with their bags. They probably wasted around 20 minutes of their PE time. When I have them next they won't have PE since they were so bad. I ended up teaching 2 classes both girls thank goodness! We were on the patio the last class because we were running behind on time so we did penalties for a short bit and then did 2 mini games where I played with a team. We ended up losing, it was awful; but hey, at least the weather was finally pretty!
When I had class with Xavi I got to learn about his family how he has 2 siblings- he is the middle child. He told me I was soo young when I am pretty sure he is only 30. During our conversation he was talking about religion and started to explain to me about how to pray and who God was. I was so confused because I didn't understand why he was explaining it to me, I thought everyone knew about God. I told him that I understood who you pray to and who God and Jesus are and he kind of acted surprised!
After school I went on an excursion by myself...yes I know I am not supposed to travel alone but I REALLY wanted to go to the mall :D I made it back alive and hardly got lost! I am so proud of myself! There were TONS of shops at the mall along with markets. I ended up coming out empty handed but it was well worth the adventure.
Once I got back home we watched the end of the Madrid game and it was hilarious. Let me tell ya, if you are a Barcelona fan, you despise Madrid not matter what- kind of like UK and UofL. If something happened with Christian Ronaldo, Oh boy he was called a cry baby and all sorts of names. Silently, I was rooting for them because who doesn't LOVE Ronaldo (especially if you are a girl ;))!? Afterwards, we watched James Bond and I could not stay awake, I finally had to call it quits at 12:40ish because I had to get up early to meet the girls to go to Sagrada La Familia!
When I had class with Xavi I got to learn about his family how he has 2 siblings- he is the middle child. He told me I was soo young when I am pretty sure he is only 30. During our conversation he was talking about religion and started to explain to me about how to pray and who God was. I was so confused because I didn't understand why he was explaining it to me, I thought everyone knew about God. I told him that I understood who you pray to and who God and Jesus are and he kind of acted surprised!
After school I went on an excursion by myself...yes I know I am not supposed to travel alone but I REALLY wanted to go to the mall :D I made it back alive and hardly got lost! I am so proud of myself! There were TONS of shops at the mall along with markets. I ended up coming out empty handed but it was well worth the adventure.
Once I got back home we watched the end of the Madrid game and it was hilarious. Let me tell ya, if you are a Barcelona fan, you despise Madrid not matter what- kind of like UK and UofL. If something happened with Christian Ronaldo, Oh boy he was called a cry baby and all sorts of names. Silently, I was rooting for them because who doesn't LOVE Ronaldo (especially if you are a girl ;))!? Afterwards, we watched James Bond and I could not stay awake, I finally had to call it quits at 12:40ish because I had to get up early to meet the girls to go to Sagrada La Familia!
Monday, April 29, 2013
Picasso Attempt
What a dreary day in Barcelona! I woke up and automatically pressed snooze on my cell phone. It is cold and rainy!! This weather is making me gloomy and tired :/ I did not pack a lot of warm clothes which was a mistake...I have been wearing the same long sleeve shirt a lot! Especially now that it has been cold for several days.
Last night the family came over for Pablo and Jorge's birthday. We had 2 types of cake and crepes which I didn't try, I was scared I wouldn't like it and I didn't want to leave anything on my plate haha Another thing we had was a champagne that was 180 euros!!!! These Barcelonians take presents to the next level! In one of my earlier posts I talked about how they give Nacho gifts for taking care of them since he is a doctor, well this champagne was from one of his patients!!! Woah!
The boys had a ball!! They got matching shoes, a mini soccer goal and ball, plastic soccer balls, books, and many other things. It was funny to see them blow out the candles especially Pablo!!! He kept making his cheeks really big and holding it then breathing really hard. He did this probably 5 times until they both blew out their cakes together.
Back to today... This morning was crazy with the kids. Our second class we had to keep them in their classroom for 15 minutes to make them calm down and actually listen. Well go figure they didn't pay attention to what Rudy was saying so we waited and waited while he screamed at them to listen. Finally he started deducted points off their grades which did not help either. Finally he sent one boy away saying he was expelled from class- he ended up coming back in the room though 5 minutes later. Then the last class of the day I got to teach! When we went to get the girls from their classroom I thought it was going to be a bad first experience teaching. To make a long story short they were wasting time in the classroom not coming out and Rudy actually threw one girl's backpack and folders into the hallway!!! That definitely would not happen in the US!! :O When we got to the gym, which is 87 steps from the first floor- I counted today, I had complete control. It was very different! Normally I can yell loud in a gym but I felt like no matter how loud I was it wasn't loud enough! The girls just wouldn't stop talking! We did penalty kicks, corner kicks, and played a mini game. I made it out alive!
After school the girls and I took the metro to the Picasso Museum. When we first got off the metro there is a shoe store that sales the shoes that I have been wanting since the first day here...even the yellow color that I want! They are reasonably priced too. I already bought a pair similar but those were high tops and a different color :) When we found our way to the museum, it was closed!!! We asked a man in a shop and I guess it is closed every Monday...bummer! I don't know when we would be able to go back since we only have ONE WEEK left!!!! AH. I still want to see so many things! Since the museum was closed we walked around and looked in shops. There were some stores that is by the museum that has very pretty bowls, tea cups, plates etc and I am on a mission to find me something for my future home!! Hopefully I will be able to find something but I haven't made up my mind on what to get! There was a beautiful vase in one store so hopefully I will find something similar elsewhere or in Paris. If you have any suggestions let me know :D
Last night the family came over for Pablo and Jorge's birthday. We had 2 types of cake and crepes which I didn't try, I was scared I wouldn't like it and I didn't want to leave anything on my plate haha Another thing we had was a champagne that was 180 euros!!!! These Barcelonians take presents to the next level! In one of my earlier posts I talked about how they give Nacho gifts for taking care of them since he is a doctor, well this champagne was from one of his patients!!! Woah!
The boys had a ball!! They got matching shoes, a mini soccer goal and ball, plastic soccer balls, books, and many other things. It was funny to see them blow out the candles especially Pablo!!! He kept making his cheeks really big and holding it then breathing really hard. He did this probably 5 times until they both blew out their cakes together.
Back to today... This morning was crazy with the kids. Our second class we had to keep them in their classroom for 15 minutes to make them calm down and actually listen. Well go figure they didn't pay attention to what Rudy was saying so we waited and waited while he screamed at them to listen. Finally he started deducted points off their grades which did not help either. Finally he sent one boy away saying he was expelled from class- he ended up coming back in the room though 5 minutes later. Then the last class of the day I got to teach! When we went to get the girls from their classroom I thought it was going to be a bad first experience teaching. To make a long story short they were wasting time in the classroom not coming out and Rudy actually threw one girl's backpack and folders into the hallway!!! That definitely would not happen in the US!! :O When we got to the gym, which is 87 steps from the first floor- I counted today, I had complete control. It was very different! Normally I can yell loud in a gym but I felt like no matter how loud I was it wasn't loud enough! The girls just wouldn't stop talking! We did penalty kicks, corner kicks, and played a mini game. I made it out alive!
After school the girls and I took the metro to the Picasso Museum. When we first got off the metro there is a shoe store that sales the shoes that I have been wanting since the first day here...even the yellow color that I want! They are reasonably priced too. I already bought a pair similar but those were high tops and a different color :) When we found our way to the museum, it was closed!!! We asked a man in a shop and I guess it is closed every Monday...bummer! I don't know when we would be able to go back since we only have ONE WEEK left!!!! AH. I still want to see so many things! Since the museum was closed we walked around and looked in shops. There were some stores that is by the museum that has very pretty bowls, tea cups, plates etc and I am on a mission to find me something for my future home!! Hopefully I will be able to find something but I haven't made up my mind on what to get! There was a beautiful vase in one store so hopefully I will find something similar elsewhere or in Paris. If you have any suggestions let me know :D
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Cold and Rainy Day
Hola! Today it has been raining off and on. I definitely did not prepare for cold or wet weather!!!! My goal was to pack light and jackets and such were not on my mind. Today I got to thinking about how there is ONLY 2 weeks left until I go back home :/ I really think I will cry once the 8th comes. I miss people from home but the culture here is just better and I love seeing new things every day even if I don't go downtown. I can just sit outside and enjoy the weather.
Rudy has really got it in my mind that I want to come back here an teach. He has been telling me about the schools I need to look into an how they are American schools... Which makes it even better! I wouldn't want to stay this far away from home my whole life but it would be amazing if I could for several years! I may look into the schools if I get the A OK from mom and Ben!! It would be GREAT!
Today I saw yet another fight with the older boys! One boy actually got a black eye! No one got in trouble or anything though.. I guess they don't have punishment for stuff like that. But from the beginning of class Xavi was mad at them. In the pool he made the class swim laps for an hour with no free time and then once we got to the gym they ran for 30 minutes and it was time to go. He told me that someone from the military needs to come in and teach them because they won't listen. So next class if they act up, they will be swimming laps and running. All of my money says they will be running next week!!
This weather is getting to me though. All day I was yawning and day dreaming! I even woke up late... I forgot to set my alarm!! Thank goodness for noisy kids in the mornings haha.
Yesterday my younger girls class took picture with me. They were SO excited and kept kissing me and not letting go of my hands even when I was walking to lunch! Thinking about that makes me realize how different the schools are ere. Affection is a part of their culture. The teachers kiss the students (on the cheeks) almost every day. The girl students always kiss me and I them when I have them in class. If I did that in the US, boy would I get fired... Quick! Also Rudy plays around with the boys by hitting them, what they call the two finger punch and some other things and he even made the comment I could NEVER do this in an American school! Which is so true.
Tomorrow I am going to the mountains with my family! It is supposed to be COLD! Mid 30s.. Needless to say I am borrowing gloves, a hat, boots, and a coat from Patricia! Oh last night Patricia showed me her Pinterest account and we looked and looked for forever on there! She ended up loving all of mom's pins and added her and mine.
Anywho I am going to bed!! Buenos Noches!
The picture of Pablo is from last night's dinner. He was trying to eat his putting with his tongue and it was all over his face and hair!
Rudy has really got it in my mind that I want to come back here an teach. He has been telling me about the schools I need to look into an how they are American schools... Which makes it even better! I wouldn't want to stay this far away from home my whole life but it would be amazing if I could for several years! I may look into the schools if I get the A OK from mom and Ben!! It would be GREAT!
Today I saw yet another fight with the older boys! One boy actually got a black eye! No one got in trouble or anything though.. I guess they don't have punishment for stuff like that. But from the beginning of class Xavi was mad at them. In the pool he made the class swim laps for an hour with no free time and then once we got to the gym they ran for 30 minutes and it was time to go. He told me that someone from the military needs to come in and teach them because they won't listen. So next class if they act up, they will be swimming laps and running. All of my money says they will be running next week!!
This weather is getting to me though. All day I was yawning and day dreaming! I even woke up late... I forgot to set my alarm!! Thank goodness for noisy kids in the mornings haha.
Yesterday my younger girls class took picture with me. They were SO excited and kept kissing me and not letting go of my hands even when I was walking to lunch! Thinking about that makes me realize how different the schools are ere. Affection is a part of their culture. The teachers kiss the students (on the cheeks) almost every day. The girl students always kiss me and I them when I have them in class. If I did that in the US, boy would I get fired... Quick! Also Rudy plays around with the boys by hitting them, what they call the two finger punch and some other things and he even made the comment I could NEVER do this in an American school! Which is so true.
Tomorrow I am going to the mountains with my family! It is supposed to be COLD! Mid 30s.. Needless to say I am borrowing gloves, a hat, boots, and a coat from Patricia! Oh last night Patricia showed me her Pinterest account and we looked and looked for forever on there! She ended up loving all of mom's pins and added her and mine.
Anywho I am going to bed!! Buenos Noches!
The picture of Pablo is from last night's dinner. He was trying to eat his putting with his tongue and it was all over his face and hair!
Cerdanya
Hi! Sorry I haven't wrote in awhile..again haha Friday I had a very slow day. I only had 4 classes and breaks after each one. One of my breaks lasted over 2 hours!! I went to Nyo's at got a coffee and doughnut while I read inside. It was a rainy cold day again in Barcelona. At the end of the day I was with Xavi and the sweetest class. I was with a 2nd grade girls class and I adore them!! They are so cute especially when I was trying to teach them because they loved listening to my English. There were 3 other classes in the pool and it got SO loud that I was screaming just trying to give directions, definitely not used to doing that especially in the gym at home. Xavi and I were talking about what we were doing this weekend and he is going to the mountains too but south from Barcelona and he is going to run in a race and we talked about a beer that Rudy told me to try and no one has even heard of it. Alex, Xavi, the head swimming coordinator, and the other PE teacher (I forgot his name) had no idea and we ended up googling it. Krieck is a Belgium beer that comes in a lot of flavors but they said that Barcelona doesn't sale it that they know of. Who knows. Any who, it was the last day for the student teachers that are from here. For lunch we celebrated and got pizza, potato fries, chips etc. The pizza was delicious...it is from Boston Pizza and we are going to try and find the place to get more sometime soon.
Once I got home from school I started to pack for Cerdanya. It is not pronounced sur-dan-yeah but by having a lisp. THUR-DAWN-YAH. We left around 9:30ish and got there close to 11. On the way there I got to go through the longest tunnel in Spain which is around 3 miles long I think. On the way up it was raining and the temperature started to decrease. At one point I was about to tell Nacho to pull over because I thought I was getting car sick, which never happens to me. I am not used to going up mountains and around turns at high speed. It was getting to me. At one point I shut my eyes thinking that would help but oh no it made me more dizzy!! Thank goodness we were close at this point.
We pulled up to the house and it is beautiful even though it is right next to a cemetery. Their house is split in half where they share with another family. Their house is 3 stories made of stone and wood which is mandatory in every village in Cerdanya. I would love to have a house in the mountains like this one! The windows remind me of Beauty and the Beast how Belle swings the wooden windows open because that's how you open the windows here! It was neat. When you looked out the windows you could see the mountains and the horses in the back yard. In the morning I took a picture out one of the windows and then 15 minutes later it started snowing...hard. It wasn't even cold but it was sticking to the ground and it made really good snowballs! The kids and I went outside and walked around the village and we had a mini snow ball fight until Pablo got cold. Later on we went to town which is around 30 minutes away-it is the closest place to get food and gas from their village. At one point we entered France to get to the market! As soon as you crossed over all the buildings looked the same other than the signs were now in French. We drove around and they wanted to take me down by the river but the snow picked up even more. But they told me that fireworks go off at night and you can have picnics by the river..Nacho says it's a place for "lovers", very romantic.
On the way back to the house, Patricia showed me where the first houses that were built in Cerdanya. They are bigger houses and the owner of Donuts actually owns a house there! Donuts is a brand name here and the doughnuts are AMAZING. But the houses around there cost around 1 million euros. For dinner I had a Catalina delicacy. It is called pa amb tomaquet which is in Catalan not Spanish. It stands for bread with tomato. I am definitely going to do this when I get back home.
You need: bread, tomatoes, garlic (optional), olive oil, and salt
Cut the bread into slices and cut the tomato in half. You can toast your bread if you want. Next, take the tomato and rub it all over the bread then take the salt and sprinkle salt all over it. After take the oil and pour over bread. If you want to try the garlic cut the garlic into pieces and rub the garlic on the bread FIRST then follow what to do with the tomato and others. It is kind of like burshetta minus the tomato chunks. Having the garlic gives it a different kind of taste but still good!
I played soccer with Guillermo, Alejandra, Maria and her brother who live next door, and Inaki. It stopped snowing for a bit and everything melted so we went and played. After awhile, the girls and I rode our bikes to see the horses down the rode. It ended up sleeting!! Woah talk about cold and your face hurting from it hitting you! Once we got to the place you could barely see the horses, they were taking cover by a building so we hurried back home to warm up. Later we watched Barcelona Hand Ball which was neat seeing the guy I told you about play! He is actually REALLY good!! He is number 9 and is one of the top 5 best hand ball players according to Nacho. They were playing in the final four and needed to win by 5 and they ended up winning by 8 I think! The game was in Barcelona and the stadium went nuts when the game was over!
Today after church we had to hurry back to Barcelona because it started snowing really hard. They said if we didn't pack up now we would get stranded there! Once we got on the road it was covered with snow!! I really thought we would get stranded but we made it A-OK. We are having another Birthday party since yesterday (Saturday) was Pablo and Jorge's 3rd Birthday!
Once I got home from school I started to pack for Cerdanya. It is not pronounced sur-dan-yeah but by having a lisp. THUR-DAWN-YAH. We left around 9:30ish and got there close to 11. On the way there I got to go through the longest tunnel in Spain which is around 3 miles long I think. On the way up it was raining and the temperature started to decrease. At one point I was about to tell Nacho to pull over because I thought I was getting car sick, which never happens to me. I am not used to going up mountains and around turns at high speed. It was getting to me. At one point I shut my eyes thinking that would help but oh no it made me more dizzy!! Thank goodness we were close at this point.
We pulled up to the house and it is beautiful even though it is right next to a cemetery. Their house is split in half where they share with another family. Their house is 3 stories made of stone and wood which is mandatory in every village in Cerdanya. I would love to have a house in the mountains like this one! The windows remind me of Beauty and the Beast how Belle swings the wooden windows open because that's how you open the windows here! It was neat. When you looked out the windows you could see the mountains and the horses in the back yard. In the morning I took a picture out one of the windows and then 15 minutes later it started snowing...hard. It wasn't even cold but it was sticking to the ground and it made really good snowballs! The kids and I went outside and walked around the village and we had a mini snow ball fight until Pablo got cold. Later on we went to town which is around 30 minutes away-it is the closest place to get food and gas from their village. At one point we entered France to get to the market! As soon as you crossed over all the buildings looked the same other than the signs were now in French. We drove around and they wanted to take me down by the river but the snow picked up even more. But they told me that fireworks go off at night and you can have picnics by the river..Nacho says it's a place for "lovers", very romantic.
On the way back to the house, Patricia showed me where the first houses that were built in Cerdanya. They are bigger houses and the owner of Donuts actually owns a house there! Donuts is a brand name here and the doughnuts are AMAZING. But the houses around there cost around 1 million euros. For dinner I had a Catalina delicacy. It is called pa amb tomaquet which is in Catalan not Spanish. It stands for bread with tomato. I am definitely going to do this when I get back home.
You need: bread, tomatoes, garlic (optional), olive oil, and salt
Cut the bread into slices and cut the tomato in half. You can toast your bread if you want. Next, take the tomato and rub it all over the bread then take the salt and sprinkle salt all over it. After take the oil and pour over bread. If you want to try the garlic cut the garlic into pieces and rub the garlic on the bread FIRST then follow what to do with the tomato and others. It is kind of like burshetta minus the tomato chunks. Having the garlic gives it a different kind of taste but still good!
I played soccer with Guillermo, Alejandra, Maria and her brother who live next door, and Inaki. It stopped snowing for a bit and everything melted so we went and played. After awhile, the girls and I rode our bikes to see the horses down the rode. It ended up sleeting!! Woah talk about cold and your face hurting from it hitting you! Once we got to the place you could barely see the horses, they were taking cover by a building so we hurried back home to warm up. Later we watched Barcelona Hand Ball which was neat seeing the guy I told you about play! He is actually REALLY good!! He is number 9 and is one of the top 5 best hand ball players according to Nacho. They were playing in the final four and needed to win by 5 and they ended up winning by 8 I think! The game was in Barcelona and the stadium went nuts when the game was over!
Today after church we had to hurry back to Barcelona because it started snowing really hard. They said if we didn't pack up now we would get stranded there! Once we got on the road it was covered with snow!! I really thought we would get stranded but we made it A-OK. We are having another Birthday party since yesterday (Saturday) was Pablo and Jorge's 3rd Birthday!
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Saint Jordi's Day
Yesterday was Saint Jordi's Day (Jordi is George in English). Everywhere you went there were booths set up to buy books or roses for the opposite sex. Normally the men are supposed to buy a single rose for a woman and the woman is supposed to give a book to the man. This day felt like a holiday.
The ESO students sold cakes and baked goods during free time and they had a free day in the gymnasium that I helped with. There was tug of war, sword fighting with pool noodles, volleyball, badminton, ring toss, and others. There was a set schedule for all of the grades to do different activities like perform a dance or sing to the rest of the students in their grade. Since I helped Xavi when I was supposed to be with Rudy I ended up getting done very early because I couldn't find Rudy at school and one of the teachers jut told me to leave because he was probably off campus watching the fourth graders and I would probably get lost if I went alone.
I thought it was interesting when Rudy told me that some kids can miss class if they are good at a sport. For example, yesterday a boy missed class because he was being tutored by someone else in tennis. He is the champion of tennis and the school understands that he is very good and they allow him to take extra lessons during school! How cool!
Once school ended Abby, Kenzie, Tayler an I went down to las Rambla to see the festivities. There were TONS of people!! Booths were set up all down the street and authors were there to sign books! We couldn't find any books on English though :( as we walked down we came across a market and they had everything there!! Meat was hanging from the ceiling, all types of fruits, vegetables, candy, chocolate, fresh smoothies.. Which were only one euro! I tried some samples of fudge at one table and it was SO good! When we left the market and walked a little more we ended up seeing a mini riot. I wasn't able to read the signs but it was about the culture. I'm not for sure if it was about the issue on how people want to divide Spain into 2 states or what?!
When I got home we had potato omelets again and the watche the barca game! It was very bad. Nacho said that barca only plays with 10 players instead of 11 because Alexis is no good and needs to go home! Every time that Alexis messed up or got a foul it was hilarious to see Nacho's reaction. Barcelona ended up losing 4-0 and we all went to bed in a sad mood. I looked up tickets to go next week to the game and shew they are over 300 euros! Needless to say I won't scratch that off my bucket list here this time!
The ESO students sold cakes and baked goods during free time and they had a free day in the gymnasium that I helped with. There was tug of war, sword fighting with pool noodles, volleyball, badminton, ring toss, and others. There was a set schedule for all of the grades to do different activities like perform a dance or sing to the rest of the students in their grade. Since I helped Xavi when I was supposed to be with Rudy I ended up getting done very early because I couldn't find Rudy at school and one of the teachers jut told me to leave because he was probably off campus watching the fourth graders and I would probably get lost if I went alone.
I thought it was interesting when Rudy told me that some kids can miss class if they are good at a sport. For example, yesterday a boy missed class because he was being tutored by someone else in tennis. He is the champion of tennis and the school understands that he is very good and they allow him to take extra lessons during school! How cool!
Once school ended Abby, Kenzie, Tayler an I went down to las Rambla to see the festivities. There were TONS of people!! Booths were set up all down the street and authors were there to sign books! We couldn't find any books on English though :( as we walked down we came across a market and they had everything there!! Meat was hanging from the ceiling, all types of fruits, vegetables, candy, chocolate, fresh smoothies.. Which were only one euro! I tried some samples of fudge at one table and it was SO good! When we left the market and walked a little more we ended up seeing a mini riot. I wasn't able to read the signs but it was about the culture. I'm not for sure if it was about the issue on how people want to divide Spain into 2 states or what?!
When I got home we had potato omelets again and the watche the barca game! It was very bad. Nacho said that barca only plays with 10 players instead of 11 because Alexis is no good and needs to go home! Every time that Alexis messed up or got a foul it was hilarious to see Nacho's reaction. Barcelona ended up losing 4-0 and we all went to bed in a sad mood. I looked up tickets to go next week to the game and shew they are over 300 euros! Needless to say I won't scratch that off my bucket list here this time!
Monday, April 22, 2013
Mamma Mia we went to Roma!
Sorry that I have not wrote since Wednesday! Everything has been crazy and I am always on the go! Well just to give you a run down of my excursion TO Rome:
1. The ESO boys (16 year olds) were insane Thursday. They got me SOAKED in swimming class which the thought it was funny. They also kept making these like ohh-la-la noises when I was trying to teach them the breast stroke...boys will be boys.
2. Tayler and I took the wrong bus to the airport but no worries we quickly found our way!
3. We got to the airport and we felt like dummies because while we were in security we took our shoes off well we got funny looks. I looked at Tayler and said, "Well looks like they have never had a 9/11 or terrorist attack!" So we quickly put our shoes back on before we reached the security people. I guess only the US makes you do that???
4. As we wre waiting for our plane we saw an argument. This is the first of many times we wish we spoke their language because it got heated. The entire room fell silent and we all starred as these 3 women yelled and carried on with the information people before they got on their flight. My guess is that their carry on bag was too big because they were throwing it around and opening and closing it. RyanAir will only allow you one carry on item. You have to fit your purse and everything into that bag or else you have to check it in for 50 euros!
5. Now it is time to board the plan an hour later... guess what? ANOTHER fight breaks out. This time it was scary. A man in front of us was getting his passport looked at (he is italian) and my guess is that they thought it was fake. He kept yelling and throwing his hands in the air going xrazy and saying something something passaporta! So I am thinking that it was his passport. Well anyway they let him go through and he turns around in front of me and is still yelling back at them (my guess is that he is cussing them) well low-and-behold one of the workers comes running past me to this man who is right in front of me and starts yelling at him. The man still is yelling and won't calm down...after about 5 minutes the worker says something and the guy yells at him as the worker runs off in the opposite direction. While we were waiting to get on the plane he kept starring back towards the gate opening I guess expecting security. We get on the plane and I was like oh gosh we are going to see this man get escorted off!! Bad news.. but good news for him... no one came. He made it to Rome safely as far as I know!
Okay so now starts my journey.... Tayler and I make it to our metro station by the hostel...the Termini which is pretty much in the center of Rome. We went to eat since we were starving (we landed at 8ish in which I got to see a beautiful sunset right before we landed). We had pizza at some restaurant and they told us it was for one person...well it was HUGE.
We walked to Alessandro palace which is our hostel and checked in we go to our room and I will never forget Tayler's face. I about lost it I was laughing SO hard. I opened the door and there are 3 bunk beds and one girl is asleep on one of the top bunks and the rest are taken all but two. The two beds are on the opposite side of the room from each other and both top bunk. Tayler mind you is still standing in the doorway just starring wide eyed! She looks at me and says, "Kelsey, can we please sleep together? I don't know about this." I never laughed so hard in my life! So we were scared and used the bathroom together that was in our room because we didn't want to be alone with this girl that was sleeping. Then the bar downstairs is booming with music. We just thought of the worst. Long story short, the girl that was asleep is VERY nice. She is chinese and is going to school in the U.K. and loved Tayler's name since it reminded her of Chuck Taylors haha. We met our other roommates throughout the weekend and they were nothing but nice. All of them were traveling alone and told us where they have been and for how long. Just a note, Tayler and I ended up sleeping in separate beds since we felt comfortable with them. I still slept with my passport and wallet but still you never know!
Friday morning we got up early to go on our Vatican Tour which was amazing. At one point Tayler looked at me and said, "Kels I think I am going to cry." If you are reading this and you have not been to Rome you need to and you will feel the exact same way. The Vatican is fabulous and flat out breath taking. The entire time I was in awe...every.single.part of it. Again, words cannot describe the things I saw. Until you go you will understand. The tour was a thumbs up. We went through Viator and our guides name was Laura. I learned so much about Micahelangelo, Raphael and other painters, history behind the Vatican etc.
After the Vatican we went to the basillica which again is breathtakingly beautiful. I could not imagine going to church there. I told Tayler can you imagine having your wedding in a place like this?!! There were so many statues, other popes have been preserved there. Afterwards, we went to eat lunch that was close to the Bascillica. We ended up both getting lasagna which was very good but the downside was that we were sitting outside and homeless people kept coming up to us!!! One lady would not leave our table and it's sad that you say no but let me tell ya she did not like that answer! I kept saying no and she was pointing to her belly (I think she was pregnant) and she just stared at me and so we ignored her, well she didn't leave until a couple of few awkward minutes. Once she left then another guy came through!! You just couldn't catch a break between them and the ANNOYING people who want to sell you these scarves and wooden baskets!
After lunch we headed back to the hostel because after all of the pictures we took everything we owned was dead! Once we were recharged it was time for another tour which was free. If you are traveling to Rome google free Rome tours. It was a good tour. We got to go inside a church where the first 3D painting in Italy was painted, the spanish steps, the pantheon, other churches, government buildings- we got to see the secret service outside because all of these important people were inside teh buildings deciding on a new president, Fontana de Trevi- we threw a coin over a shoulder for good luck, some statues and monuments etc.
We finally met up with Abby and Kenzie since they arrived Friday morning. We had dinner separately so Tayler and I went close to our hostel and our waiter looked exactly like corey off boy meets world other than he had a mole on his chin. Our waiter loved us. He actually begged us not to leave because we were attractive and he didn't want to be stuck with "old people" haha. Another note about Rome..if you like Sangria's DO NOT I repeat DO NOT get any there. I had 4 sips and I was done. We told our waiter about how strong and different it was and he told us they make things stronger in Rome unlike Spain. So just have that in your mind, unless you really like nasty stuff then go ahead and order it :D
Saturday we took a bus tour and say the colosseum, capitine hill, the forum and other things. It was a long and tiring and very cold day! Sunday we ended up going back to the Vatican and we just missed the pope..there were TONS of people waving flags and banners listening to him speak. Sunday we just enjoyed our day. We saw the thigns we wanted to see and just walked and sat wherever. We bought some paintings for one euro that we are going to hang in our future houses..they are very pretty. We ended up seeing a concert and mini mouse, mickey mouse and tigger there too!
Our flight back home was really late we ended up not flying in until 10:30 and we didn't actually get home until midnight becuase we might or might not have gotten lost ;) the bus that Tayler and I took the airport was closed so we didn't know where to go. We ended up getting on a train to another metro. That metro to another metro (which was going the wrong way) then we got on another metro to our stop! We were SO tired that I just said if anything we can sleep on the streets because we have clothes, face wash, water, tooth brush, and other necessities to survive through one night haha
Well I am going to bed. Tomorrow is Saint George's Day!!!!!!!!!!!! I am really excited to see how they celebrate and especially to go to school because all day is activities and music! I think tomorrow we are going to go to Las Ramblas and see the parade which supposidly lasts all day.
1. The ESO boys (16 year olds) were insane Thursday. They got me SOAKED in swimming class which the thought it was funny. They also kept making these like ohh-la-la noises when I was trying to teach them the breast stroke...boys will be boys.
2. Tayler and I took the wrong bus to the airport but no worries we quickly found our way!
3. We got to the airport and we felt like dummies because while we were in security we took our shoes off well we got funny looks. I looked at Tayler and said, "Well looks like they have never had a 9/11 or terrorist attack!" So we quickly put our shoes back on before we reached the security people. I guess only the US makes you do that???
4. As we wre waiting for our plane we saw an argument. This is the first of many times we wish we spoke their language because it got heated. The entire room fell silent and we all starred as these 3 women yelled and carried on with the information people before they got on their flight. My guess is that their carry on bag was too big because they were throwing it around and opening and closing it. RyanAir will only allow you one carry on item. You have to fit your purse and everything into that bag or else you have to check it in for 50 euros!
5. Now it is time to board the plan an hour later... guess what? ANOTHER fight breaks out. This time it was scary. A man in front of us was getting his passport looked at (he is italian) and my guess is that they thought it was fake. He kept yelling and throwing his hands in the air going xrazy and saying something something passaporta! So I am thinking that it was his passport. Well anyway they let him go through and he turns around in front of me and is still yelling back at them (my guess is that he is cussing them) well low-and-behold one of the workers comes running past me to this man who is right in front of me and starts yelling at him. The man still is yelling and won't calm down...after about 5 minutes the worker says something and the guy yells at him as the worker runs off in the opposite direction. While we were waiting to get on the plane he kept starring back towards the gate opening I guess expecting security. We get on the plane and I was like oh gosh we are going to see this man get escorted off!! Bad news.. but good news for him... no one came. He made it to Rome safely as far as I know!
Okay so now starts my journey.... Tayler and I make it to our metro station by the hostel...the Termini which is pretty much in the center of Rome. We went to eat since we were starving (we landed at 8ish in which I got to see a beautiful sunset right before we landed). We had pizza at some restaurant and they told us it was for one person...well it was HUGE.
We walked to Alessandro palace which is our hostel and checked in we go to our room and I will never forget Tayler's face. I about lost it I was laughing SO hard. I opened the door and there are 3 bunk beds and one girl is asleep on one of the top bunks and the rest are taken all but two. The two beds are on the opposite side of the room from each other and both top bunk. Tayler mind you is still standing in the doorway just starring wide eyed! She looks at me and says, "Kelsey, can we please sleep together? I don't know about this." I never laughed so hard in my life! So we were scared and used the bathroom together that was in our room because we didn't want to be alone with this girl that was sleeping. Then the bar downstairs is booming with music. We just thought of the worst. Long story short, the girl that was asleep is VERY nice. She is chinese and is going to school in the U.K. and loved Tayler's name since it reminded her of Chuck Taylors haha. We met our other roommates throughout the weekend and they were nothing but nice. All of them were traveling alone and told us where they have been and for how long. Just a note, Tayler and I ended up sleeping in separate beds since we felt comfortable with them. I still slept with my passport and wallet but still you never know!
Friday morning we got up early to go on our Vatican Tour which was amazing. At one point Tayler looked at me and said, "Kels I think I am going to cry." If you are reading this and you have not been to Rome you need to and you will feel the exact same way. The Vatican is fabulous and flat out breath taking. The entire time I was in awe...every.single.part of it. Again, words cannot describe the things I saw. Until you go you will understand. The tour was a thumbs up. We went through Viator and our guides name was Laura. I learned so much about Micahelangelo, Raphael and other painters, history behind the Vatican etc.
After the Vatican we went to the basillica which again is breathtakingly beautiful. I could not imagine going to church there. I told Tayler can you imagine having your wedding in a place like this?!! There were so many statues, other popes have been preserved there. Afterwards, we went to eat lunch that was close to the Bascillica. We ended up both getting lasagna which was very good but the downside was that we were sitting outside and homeless people kept coming up to us!!! One lady would not leave our table and it's sad that you say no but let me tell ya she did not like that answer! I kept saying no and she was pointing to her belly (I think she was pregnant) and she just stared at me and so we ignored her, well she didn't leave until a couple of few awkward minutes. Once she left then another guy came through!! You just couldn't catch a break between them and the ANNOYING people who want to sell you these scarves and wooden baskets!
After lunch we headed back to the hostel because after all of the pictures we took everything we owned was dead! Once we were recharged it was time for another tour which was free. If you are traveling to Rome google free Rome tours. It was a good tour. We got to go inside a church where the first 3D painting in Italy was painted, the spanish steps, the pantheon, other churches, government buildings- we got to see the secret service outside because all of these important people were inside teh buildings deciding on a new president, Fontana de Trevi- we threw a coin over a shoulder for good luck, some statues and monuments etc.
We finally met up with Abby and Kenzie since they arrived Friday morning. We had dinner separately so Tayler and I went close to our hostel and our waiter looked exactly like corey off boy meets world other than he had a mole on his chin. Our waiter loved us. He actually begged us not to leave because we were attractive and he didn't want to be stuck with "old people" haha. Another note about Rome..if you like Sangria's DO NOT I repeat DO NOT get any there. I had 4 sips and I was done. We told our waiter about how strong and different it was and he told us they make things stronger in Rome unlike Spain. So just have that in your mind, unless you really like nasty stuff then go ahead and order it :D
Saturday we took a bus tour and say the colosseum, capitine hill, the forum and other things. It was a long and tiring and very cold day! Sunday we ended up going back to the Vatican and we just missed the pope..there were TONS of people waving flags and banners listening to him speak. Sunday we just enjoyed our day. We saw the thigns we wanted to see and just walked and sat wherever. We bought some paintings for one euro that we are going to hang in our future houses..they are very pretty. We ended up seeing a concert and mini mouse, mickey mouse and tigger there too!
Our flight back home was really late we ended up not flying in until 10:30 and we didn't actually get home until midnight becuase we might or might not have gotten lost ;) the bus that Tayler and I took the airport was closed so we didn't know where to go. We ended up getting on a train to another metro. That metro to another metro (which was going the wrong way) then we got on another metro to our stop! We were SO tired that I just said if anything we can sleep on the streets because we have clothes, face wash, water, tooth brush, and other necessities to survive through one night haha
Well I am going to bed. Tomorrow is Saint George's Day!!!!!!!!!!!! I am really excited to see how they celebrate and especially to go to school because all day is activities and music! I think tomorrow we are going to go to Las Ramblas and see the parade which supposidly lasts all day.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
It has already been a week?!!!
Time has flown by!! I cannot believe a week ago I just arrived in the Toscas house and would soon start my first day at Reial Monestir de Santa Isabel! I am not liking this one bit... I need and want it to go by slow. A lot of the student teachers that I came with are ready to leave because they are home sick and want the American culture back...I am the complete opposite. Barcelona is amazing in every way not matter if they do make fun of me for being American at restaurants ;) I have tried so many new things that I wouldnt ever get in the United States. Seeing the culture difference has really brought insight on how other people live, this isn't like a vacation for 1-2 weeks; I am actually living here and experiencing everything that Barcelona has to offer. I couldn't be happier. I do miss my family but I never get home sick...I love being away and starting fresh and seeing different things and meeting new people!
Today I was with Rudi and my morning started off late. I did not have class until 10:30 so I woke up at my usual time and did some homework then met Tayler at Doctor Coffee. I got a strawberry smoothie that was delicious! All of my classes were crazy because the boys fought during soccer, go figure. One class even got punished where they could not play for the rest of the year. They were insane..before class even started one boy started kicking another kid in the stomach and even when he fell on the ground! We are talking about 3rd grade! I just want to know what the parents do at home...do they even have discipline or do they just not care?! In another class of boys one of them not too long ago assaulted Rudy...crazy and insane kids!!!
After school some of the girls that I have had in class saw me and ran and bear hugged me!! They are so precious... they drug me to meet their parents and how excited they were that they had an American teacher! I was so happy that they were excited! I told their parents how well they have been doing in class and that I love them! :D
Rudy gave me a map of Rome for tomorrow and circled all of the places I need to see (he has been there over 10 times!). Hopefully Tayler and I won't get lost Thursday night and Friday morning by ourselves haha...it should be interesting! I am so excited to go to Rome though!!! Saturday I will actually get to see my precious little bit Abby in Florence (she is my KD little sister) It has been WAY too long! Tayler and I are flying out of Barcelona tomorrow at 6:30 PM and will land in Rome around 8:30 then we are going to walk around probably and hopefully find our hostel. Friday morning we have a tour that we booked and we will get to see the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum, St Raphael's room etc. We are praying that the temperatures drop a little because we haev to wear long sleeves and jeans on the tour.. so we are going to be sweating like pigs! Then that night we found a free tour that takes us to 15 different places I think! Hopefully everything works out as planned! Saturday Florence...then Sunday Rome again and we fly out of Rome I think 9 PM.
Tonight for dinner I had chicken (of course) red peppers which are delicious (I am making these when I get back home!-Ben would love it), crockets, pineapple, potatoes and green beans together...I could have ate until I passed out! Everything is SO good! But I did grow a wild hair tonight.... There is a "jam" as they say, we call it HAM ha but any who it is the most expensive ham in the country if I heard right... for a leg it is 1,000+ euros! Looking at it you would never touch it... it looks raw and gross but I mean come on it's expensive and I would never try it again. So that wild hair grew and a took me a piece...I chewed and chewed then starting laughing because it was gross!!! Of course I swallowed it because I didn't want to be rude but jeez it was not something I would try again. Alejandra ate all of it but 3 pieces!!!! I don't know how that girl loves it so much. Oh and just to let you know they did not spend 1,000 euros on this thing it was a gift to Nacho and the hospital. He says it is very common to give your doctors gifts and that is what he got! I will have to take a picture of it next time that way you will see how insane I am for trying it.
Well I have to go! I have plenty of homework to get done unfortunately! Tomorrow I have my crazy boys who are 16 that have no filter for swimming and for regular PE. It should be interesting! I will definitely have to blog after that class because I know they are going to do some stupid things haha
Kelsey
Oh and I posted pictures in my last post from yesterday!! I forgot to add the pictures last night.
Today I was with Rudi and my morning started off late. I did not have class until 10:30 so I woke up at my usual time and did some homework then met Tayler at Doctor Coffee. I got a strawberry smoothie that was delicious! All of my classes were crazy because the boys fought during soccer, go figure. One class even got punished where they could not play for the rest of the year. They were insane..before class even started one boy started kicking another kid in the stomach and even when he fell on the ground! We are talking about 3rd grade! I just want to know what the parents do at home...do they even have discipline or do they just not care?! In another class of boys one of them not too long ago assaulted Rudy...crazy and insane kids!!!
After school some of the girls that I have had in class saw me and ran and bear hugged me!! They are so precious... they drug me to meet their parents and how excited they were that they had an American teacher! I was so happy that they were excited! I told their parents how well they have been doing in class and that I love them! :D
Rudy gave me a map of Rome for tomorrow and circled all of the places I need to see (he has been there over 10 times!). Hopefully Tayler and I won't get lost Thursday night and Friday morning by ourselves haha...it should be interesting! I am so excited to go to Rome though!!! Saturday I will actually get to see my precious little bit Abby in Florence (she is my KD little sister) It has been WAY too long! Tayler and I are flying out of Barcelona tomorrow at 6:30 PM and will land in Rome around 8:30 then we are going to walk around probably and hopefully find our hostel. Friday morning we have a tour that we booked and we will get to see the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum, St Raphael's room etc. We are praying that the temperatures drop a little because we haev to wear long sleeves and jeans on the tour.. so we are going to be sweating like pigs! Then that night we found a free tour that takes us to 15 different places I think! Hopefully everything works out as planned! Saturday Florence...then Sunday Rome again and we fly out of Rome I think 9 PM.
Tonight for dinner I had chicken (of course) red peppers which are delicious (I am making these when I get back home!-Ben would love it), crockets, pineapple, potatoes and green beans together...I could have ate until I passed out! Everything is SO good! But I did grow a wild hair tonight.... There is a "jam" as they say, we call it HAM ha but any who it is the most expensive ham in the country if I heard right... for a leg it is 1,000+ euros! Looking at it you would never touch it... it looks raw and gross but I mean come on it's expensive and I would never try it again. So that wild hair grew and a took me a piece...I chewed and chewed then starting laughing because it was gross!!! Of course I swallowed it because I didn't want to be rude but jeez it was not something I would try again. Alejandra ate all of it but 3 pieces!!!! I don't know how that girl loves it so much. Oh and just to let you know they did not spend 1,000 euros on this thing it was a gift to Nacho and the hospital. He says it is very common to give your doctors gifts and that is what he got! I will have to take a picture of it next time that way you will see how insane I am for trying it.
Well I have to go! I have plenty of homework to get done unfortunately! Tomorrow I have my crazy boys who are 16 that have no filter for swimming and for regular PE. It should be interesting! I will definitely have to blog after that class because I know they are going to do some stupid things haha
Kelsey
Oh and I posted pictures in my last post from yesterday!! I forgot to add the pictures last night.
Inaki and Guillermo on the way to school after lunch...what a sweet big brother!
Shopping Day
Sorry that I did not update you all yesterday. I have been SO busy every day. I feel like I am nonstop. Having classes on top of student teaching is a pain! The TWS is due next week so I am trying to finish everything before this weekend and I have a night class that has presentations due that I need to finish to send to my teacher. I am going to miss out on some things today and next week but oh well.... I need to finish this unfortunately.
Well school went well yesterday. I forgot to tell you all about Rudi. He is from Argentina and he reminds me of Ramos. Ramos is a teacher that I had at Western and he was very sarcastic and liked to joke around with people. They are pretty much the same person and look similar! A lot of the student teachers here have talked about discipline within the classroom and how awful it is because students will talk when you are trying to explain something and the teacher really doesn't do much. Well in P.E. it is the complete opposite. It is very structured and if Rudi is trying to explain something and the students are talking he will yell and get after them and wait while telling him they are wasting their time to play a game at the end of class. This is what I do minus the yelling haha. He is used to the American way because when he started teaching he was with American students in Argentina and throughout Europe. Also, I got to learn about his personal life. He told me about his wife yesterday and I learned that she has Huntington's Disease. I have heard of this before but he explained to me that she has had it for 13 years and it is to the point where she is going to die soon. Six years ago he had to put her in a home because he could not take care of her any longer. When he was giving me the details about what all happened to her I was speechless and wanted to cry for him. The one thing he misses the most is his best friend who he can talk to and tell anything to..what a sweet man. Since she has this disease they decided not to have kids because she got this because of her mom and her great grandmother I think. Since she has had this disease for a long time he told me that he is an expert in the disease and is actually going to talk to scientists and researchers in September- around 800-1,000 people!!!
I was with Rudi for somewhat of the day and wow the boys class from yesterday that I had swimming with (the one's that are bad) I had for my first class. Guess what? There were TWO fights when we were playing soccer. I don't know why they were fighting but one was after a goal and another was when someone took the ball away. They just cannot stand to lose and they get too into the game haha Some of the kids had to hold one boy back while Rudi was trying to calm the other down and then they broke loose and started pushing each other...finally we got them to sit out! Boys these days...sheesh.
The next classes I had with Xavi and he made me teach the breast stroke to the ESO 4 girls class (this is an all girls class that are 16). Well if you know me you should know that I do not know swimming techniques whatsoever and it was interesting to say the least. Xavi had to teach me what to say with the motions and then I had to remember and teach it in English. Who knows if I even explained it right haha they did pretty well though! After swimming we went to the gym where they had to create a dance. During the class they only picked out their music which they were doing and some parts of the dance. The music is American/English and there are cuss words which surprised me because in school back home obviously you cannot use that music. I guess they don't know what it means because everyone was singing out loud saying it and Xavi didn't say anything. If the priests know what it means I bet they won't be too happy when they perform the dance in front of the school!!
For lunch a group of us went to Tomasz and ate. It was so weird because I got the chicken and potatoes but it cam with eggs! It was SO good though! The potatoes were actually better here than the place we got them from on Sunday! After we ate we went and got dessert of course and I had gelato which was AMAZING!
After school Tayler, Kenzie, Abby and I went downtown to Corte De Ingles which is comparable to a HUGE Macy's. I think it was 6 or 7 floors!!!! I bought an outfit for this weekend in Rome. On our tour we have to wear shirts that are at our elbows. When we were finished we went to H&M and I bought a pair of jeans for 10 euros! Talk about a bargain! In U.S. money that is 13 dollars. We could only go to these two stores because we told our families we would be back for dinner. Nacho cooked me eggs and bacon and then I helped Guillermo with English. He actually corrected me on my English haha! When I was helping him I actually learned a lot because I know that I do not use the correct words in a sentence like lay, laying, lying etc. Now I know the difference!
Anyway I am going to meet Tayler for coffee now at Dr. Coffee I will update later! Buenos Dias!
Kelsey
Well school went well yesterday. I forgot to tell you all about Rudi. He is from Argentina and he reminds me of Ramos. Ramos is a teacher that I had at Western and he was very sarcastic and liked to joke around with people. They are pretty much the same person and look similar! A lot of the student teachers here have talked about discipline within the classroom and how awful it is because students will talk when you are trying to explain something and the teacher really doesn't do much. Well in P.E. it is the complete opposite. It is very structured and if Rudi is trying to explain something and the students are talking he will yell and get after them and wait while telling him they are wasting their time to play a game at the end of class. This is what I do minus the yelling haha. He is used to the American way because when he started teaching he was with American students in Argentina and throughout Europe. Also, I got to learn about his personal life. He told me about his wife yesterday and I learned that she has Huntington's Disease. I have heard of this before but he explained to me that she has had it for 13 years and it is to the point where she is going to die soon. Six years ago he had to put her in a home because he could not take care of her any longer. When he was giving me the details about what all happened to her I was speechless and wanted to cry for him. The one thing he misses the most is his best friend who he can talk to and tell anything to..what a sweet man. Since she has this disease they decided not to have kids because she got this because of her mom and her great grandmother I think. Since she has had this disease for a long time he told me that he is an expert in the disease and is actually going to talk to scientists and researchers in September- around 800-1,000 people!!!
I was with Rudi for somewhat of the day and wow the boys class from yesterday that I had swimming with (the one's that are bad) I had for my first class. Guess what? There were TWO fights when we were playing soccer. I don't know why they were fighting but one was after a goal and another was when someone took the ball away. They just cannot stand to lose and they get too into the game haha Some of the kids had to hold one boy back while Rudi was trying to calm the other down and then they broke loose and started pushing each other...finally we got them to sit out! Boys these days...sheesh.
The next classes I had with Xavi and he made me teach the breast stroke to the ESO 4 girls class (this is an all girls class that are 16). Well if you know me you should know that I do not know swimming techniques whatsoever and it was interesting to say the least. Xavi had to teach me what to say with the motions and then I had to remember and teach it in English. Who knows if I even explained it right haha they did pretty well though! After swimming we went to the gym where they had to create a dance. During the class they only picked out their music which they were doing and some parts of the dance. The music is American/English and there are cuss words which surprised me because in school back home obviously you cannot use that music. I guess they don't know what it means because everyone was singing out loud saying it and Xavi didn't say anything. If the priests know what it means I bet they won't be too happy when they perform the dance in front of the school!!
For lunch a group of us went to Tomasz and ate. It was so weird because I got the chicken and potatoes but it cam with eggs! It was SO good though! The potatoes were actually better here than the place we got them from on Sunday! After we ate we went and got dessert of course and I had gelato which was AMAZING!
After school Tayler, Kenzie, Abby and I went downtown to Corte De Ingles which is comparable to a HUGE Macy's. I think it was 6 or 7 floors!!!! I bought an outfit for this weekend in Rome. On our tour we have to wear shirts that are at our elbows. When we were finished we went to H&M and I bought a pair of jeans for 10 euros! Talk about a bargain! In U.S. money that is 13 dollars. We could only go to these two stores because we told our families we would be back for dinner. Nacho cooked me eggs and bacon and then I helped Guillermo with English. He actually corrected me on my English haha! When I was helping him I actually learned a lot because I know that I do not use the correct words in a sentence like lay, laying, lying etc. Now I know the difference!
Anyway I am going to meet Tayler for coffee now at Dr. Coffee I will update later! Buenos Dias!
Kelsey
Yummy red peppers with water and oil
My coca-cola with lemon in the glass
Chicken, egg, grabbas, bread. You can see the spicy mayo clump to the left
Below: Perfect Dessert at Chocolate Box
Monday, April 15, 2013
First day in P.E.
Hola! As I am writing this post I just found out about what happened in Boston. I got out of the shower and had Nacho tape my foot when he told me what was on the news. I could not believe it! The first thing I thought of was 9/11 and what was going on and if they caught whoever it was. Sitting and watching the news and calling mom to make sure she knows about it gives me goose bumps all over. It is devastating to know that people have to result in violence especially to innocent people. Hopefully, we find out who is responsible and nothing more will come of it...prayers are going to everyone involved and to the whole country of the U.S.
This morning I was finally going to Physical Education!! Rudi went to Madrid last week to coach volleyball and he actually won the cup! He was very proud and showed all of the kids and teachers at school. I couldn't help but laugh. My first class was with Guillermo so I was very excited. When I got there, to my surprise we were flaying futbol!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was SO excited to finally get to play! :D Their P.E. is different than what I am used to. Everyone still dresses for class but they get a lot more time than I would like if I was teaching and in class they do 2 skill activities and then play a game. Normally, I would have to gradually teach skills and/or moves then 10 minutes at the end of class play a soccer game whereas they play for 30. I did like how at the beginning Rudi has the class run for 8 minutes and then do sit ups and push-ups. With the younger age group they will run for 5-6 minutes. When we got to play Rudi and I split up on either team with 10 minutes left in class. I thought I would get smoked by these boys especially since they live for soccer. They actually told me I did good and was impressed (they were 5th graders though haha).
I had 2 classes for swimming one class of all boys (the other 5th grade class) and a 4th grade class of girls. In the swimming pool area everyone had to wear sandals and the students had to wear a bathing suit and a cap. Rudi likes to joke around with me because he told me that the female teachers teach topless in the pool and go figure I believed him!! I kind of looked at him like he had 3 heads and he started laughing haha. When the boys were done changing, it was funny to see them because they wore very short shorts. In the pool area I didn't know what to expect and when I saw it I was very surprised. It is a big pool with a lot of different lanes. Other schools come to my school in order to teach swimming to the kids. There were probably around 6 teachers in there trying to teach. Any who,I do have to say that the boys were the worst class that I had for swimming. They thought it was SO funny to do a cannon ball into the pool right by Rudi and I so of course I get soaked while they laughed. They were out of control. They kept throwing things at each other and not listening to Rudi. The girls on the other hand were very good. Majority of them were able to do the free style, back stroke, and breast stroke correctly.
My last class of the day was with girls and they were a hand full. We ended up not having a lot of time to play soccer because a group of 4 girls took forever to get dressed- I even had to take things away from them because they would just sit and talk in the locker room and not change! In class while we were running they would walk and Rudi told them to start running and they didn't listen. Boy was he mad! I told him that I don't know how he will handle them when they are teenagers because they are only in the 4th grade acting prissy!! I am already dreading having them when they go swimming this week!
Tomorrow I am going to be with Rudi again and Xavi who I met today. After school Tayler, Kenzie, Abby and I are going shopping!!! wahoo!
Buenos Noches,
Kelsey
This morning I was finally going to Physical Education!! Rudi went to Madrid last week to coach volleyball and he actually won the cup! He was very proud and showed all of the kids and teachers at school. I couldn't help but laugh. My first class was with Guillermo so I was very excited. When I got there, to my surprise we were flaying futbol!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was SO excited to finally get to play! :D Their P.E. is different than what I am used to. Everyone still dresses for class but they get a lot more time than I would like if I was teaching and in class they do 2 skill activities and then play a game. Normally, I would have to gradually teach skills and/or moves then 10 minutes at the end of class play a soccer game whereas they play for 30. I did like how at the beginning Rudi has the class run for 8 minutes and then do sit ups and push-ups. With the younger age group they will run for 5-6 minutes. When we got to play Rudi and I split up on either team with 10 minutes left in class. I thought I would get smoked by these boys especially since they live for soccer. They actually told me I did good and was impressed (they were 5th graders though haha).
I had 2 classes for swimming one class of all boys (the other 5th grade class) and a 4th grade class of girls. In the swimming pool area everyone had to wear sandals and the students had to wear a bathing suit and a cap. Rudi likes to joke around with me because he told me that the female teachers teach topless in the pool and go figure I believed him!! I kind of looked at him like he had 3 heads and he started laughing haha. When the boys were done changing, it was funny to see them because they wore very short shorts. In the pool area I didn't know what to expect and when I saw it I was very surprised. It is a big pool with a lot of different lanes. Other schools come to my school in order to teach swimming to the kids. There were probably around 6 teachers in there trying to teach. Any who,I do have to say that the boys were the worst class that I had for swimming. They thought it was SO funny to do a cannon ball into the pool right by Rudi and I so of course I get soaked while they laughed. They were out of control. They kept throwing things at each other and not listening to Rudi. The girls on the other hand were very good. Majority of them were able to do the free style, back stroke, and breast stroke correctly.
My last class of the day was with girls and they were a hand full. We ended up not having a lot of time to play soccer because a group of 4 girls took forever to get dressed- I even had to take things away from them because they would just sit and talk in the locker room and not change! In class while we were running they would walk and Rudi told them to start running and they didn't listen. Boy was he mad! I told him that I don't know how he will handle them when they are teenagers because they are only in the 4th grade acting prissy!! I am already dreading having them when they go swimming this week!
Tomorrow I am going to be with Rudi again and Xavi who I met today. After school Tayler, Kenzie, Abby and I are going shopping!!! wahoo!
Buenos Noches,
Kelsey
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Birthday Party!
Hola!! I just finished the birthday party for Guillermo, he will be 11 tomorrow. After church we tried to go to Tomasz's but it was closed since it is Sunday. It is very close to the school and like I said before it is famous for hot potatoes or potatoes grabbas. Nacho and Patricia said they are very spicy because they have tobasco sauce, spices, peppers etc on there. I was really nervous to try since I DONT like spicy food at all. But we went to a different place by the square ad got them and amazingly they were good!! We got two orders and one of the boxes had just the spicy sauce and the other had everything and even hot mayonnaise! Patricia drank probably 3 glasses of water while I took it like a champ haha
When we got back to the house Patricia's dad was waiting for us (the one that came over earlier in the week to watch the soccer game) around 2:30 we started lunch. We had beef from the other night which was still delicious, chick peas, artichokes (yuck), olives, and something they called crocket but I think they were something like popper- it was fried with a cream in the center with ham chunks, very good! We also had the grabbas, pasta, and for dessert strawberries. Nacho kept making fun of me because I don't like artichokes so he made sure to save some for me as a joke. Once we were finished Patricia's dad and I tried to communicate with each other about Abraham Lincoln, Davey Crocket, Elvis Presley, James Brown and others. We listened to his "old timer" music which was the plasters or posters I cannot remember. Even though he can barely speak English I feel like he is a part of my family. I called him old and crazy. Crazy because when he was younger he used to run with the bulls!!!!!! CRAZY MAN! We watched videos of it and I learned every year on July 8th the run with the bulls down the street into the stadium. So I told him he was crazy and everyone else who did that. Patricia translated for me because I wanted to know the history behind the running and her dad said that it started a long time ago because some person decided it would be a good idea to run alongside the bulls and since then it has been a tradition.
After we listened to music and told stories, I shared with the photos of my house in KY and they were amazed that I lived in a house with a lot of land. Here it is unusual to live in a house because a lot of people live here and they are close together. Guillermo wanted to see a picture of where I slept but I didn't have one. We sat and looked through pictures of their second home in the mountains-where I will be going in 2 weeks. Nacho showed me a place where the black virgin is. He said even if I am not Catholic I need to visit. Barcelona celebrates her and Saint George. She is in Montserrat which is an hour away from Barcelona on a bus or train. When I saw the pictures Montserrat is not the mountains we normally think of. If you google it you will understand, very unusual. Around this time the family kept piling into the house!
We talked and talked and talked for 2 hours- I really felt at home with their family. They were very nice and made sure to translate for me when needed. I learned that gin and tonic is the "it" drink now-a-days here. Last year if you drank a gin tonic people may think you are crazy but now it is something you drink when you go out. Anywho, we had gin tonics (yuck) and champagne and finally got to eat the birthday cake close to 8:00, mind you this is still our lunch!!!!! They sang happy birthday in spanish (I got a short video on Facebook) and then in English for me that I had to lead. Their uncle kept telling me to say it louder so sorry if I was screaming or sound awful haha Nacho and his brother-in-law are going to race in the 10k next Sunday and they were giving each other a hard time all night about who was going to win. Last year Nacho lost by 1 minute so he has been bound and determined to win! I was told that I had to come with a sign and make a t-shirt to root him on.
Tomorrow I finally get to start in P.E. so we will see how this goes especially because I will be teaching swimming...everyone say a prayer that no one drowns!!!!!!! AH.
Buenos Noches,
Kelsey
When we got back to the house Patricia's dad was waiting for us (the one that came over earlier in the week to watch the soccer game) around 2:30 we started lunch. We had beef from the other night which was still delicious, chick peas, artichokes (yuck), olives, and something they called crocket but I think they were something like popper- it was fried with a cream in the center with ham chunks, very good! We also had the grabbas, pasta, and for dessert strawberries. Nacho kept making fun of me because I don't like artichokes so he made sure to save some for me as a joke. Once we were finished Patricia's dad and I tried to communicate with each other about Abraham Lincoln, Davey Crocket, Elvis Presley, James Brown and others. We listened to his "old timer" music which was the plasters or posters I cannot remember. Even though he can barely speak English I feel like he is a part of my family. I called him old and crazy. Crazy because when he was younger he used to run with the bulls!!!!!! CRAZY MAN! We watched videos of it and I learned every year on July 8th the run with the bulls down the street into the stadium. So I told him he was crazy and everyone else who did that. Patricia translated for me because I wanted to know the history behind the running and her dad said that it started a long time ago because some person decided it would be a good idea to run alongside the bulls and since then it has been a tradition.
After we listened to music and told stories, I shared with the photos of my house in KY and they were amazed that I lived in a house with a lot of land. Here it is unusual to live in a house because a lot of people live here and they are close together. Guillermo wanted to see a picture of where I slept but I didn't have one. We sat and looked through pictures of their second home in the mountains-where I will be going in 2 weeks. Nacho showed me a place where the black virgin is. He said even if I am not Catholic I need to visit. Barcelona celebrates her and Saint George. She is in Montserrat which is an hour away from Barcelona on a bus or train. When I saw the pictures Montserrat is not the mountains we normally think of. If you google it you will understand, very unusual. Around this time the family kept piling into the house!
We talked and talked and talked for 2 hours- I really felt at home with their family. They were very nice and made sure to translate for me when needed. I learned that gin and tonic is the "it" drink now-a-days here. Last year if you drank a gin tonic people may think you are crazy but now it is something you drink when you go out. Anywho, we had gin tonics (yuck) and champagne and finally got to eat the birthday cake close to 8:00, mind you this is still our lunch!!!!! They sang happy birthday in spanish (I got a short video on Facebook) and then in English for me that I had to lead. Their uncle kept telling me to say it louder so sorry if I was screaming or sound awful haha Nacho and his brother-in-law are going to race in the 10k next Sunday and they were giving each other a hard time all night about who was going to win. Last year Nacho lost by 1 minute so he has been bound and determined to win! I was told that I had to come with a sign and make a t-shirt to root him on.
Tomorrow I finally get to start in P.E. so we will see how this goes especially because I will be teaching swimming...everyone say a prayer that no one drowns!!!!!!! AH.
Buenos Noches,
Kelsey
Friday, April 12, 2013
Tibidabo Mountain
I really need to start blogging before midnight here. I am going to forget things that have happened today!! Today was my last day with Natalie which I will miss SO much! In one of our classes the students thought we were crazy because we were literally laughing at everything! She was trying her hardest to sound American and so she wanted me to sound British. The 16 year old's wanted to watch a movie instead of being in class so we watched a modern day of old yeller and that got everyone laughing since I said old yeller and not yellow.
For coffee break Tayler, Kenzie, Abby and I went to Dr. Coffee in the square and had some delicious drinks! I got a macchiato and it was perfect (see picture below). It was very warm today, all of the teachers were saying it is very unusual that it is this warm. When we got back to school I was pretty much done for the day other than a girls class (Tayler's class) and we learned about Christopher Columbus. It was good to get a refresher on my history since it is not my best subject. At 3:00 Guillermo and his class got to play soccer with their dad's for a reward for doing so well. For a little bit I got to see Nacho and Guillermo play with each other and they were good!! I was very proud.
On the walk home Nacho brought up the idea that I should go running with him and of course I said yes thinking it would be a short run. Oh no he said, "Eh okay we will go for an hour. It will only be 10 or so kilometers up a mountain." Once he said this my mouth dropped open since I am so out of shape. I had to warn him that it was not going to be pretty haha Patricia wished me good luck and how I would represent all women in the mountains. Not only was I going to run UP a mountain but he asked if it was okay if we took the motorcycle, of course I said yes!!!! Mom, I wore a helmet and like my previous post the male that I rode with not only knew how to drive, he knew not to hurt me, and we did not go too far only like 20 minutes away with traffic ;) It is a law that you have to wear a helmet if you are on a motorcycle which is very good.
On the way to the mountain I was not for sure how to hand on and I know that Nacho thought I was a weirdo since I put my hands on his side which I thought was awkward since he is my host dad haha Finally after seeing other people on bikes I noticed where the handle bars are to hang on which helped! We were weaving in and out of traffic and were right next to cars a long the way, at one point I just closed my eyes because I was nervous that I would fly off somehow even though he was very cautious. On the way to the mountain I was able to see the hospital where Nacho works which was big and the cancer and tendon hospital that is very famous- they work with New York. When we got half way up the mountain he told me a good place to get good and a gin and tonic for dessert! The place looks over the entire city of Barcelona. I cannot describe in words how pretty it is!!!!! I have few pictures below but it does not do justice because I was running while taking them and you cannot see the whole city. While I was running I kept thinking to myself aw this is so pretty yet I hate this since I was running up hill the majority of the time. Nacho was trying to stay with me but I told him to just go ahead if I was too slow, he stayed with me for 2 or so miles and when I started slowing down I finally made him run ahead. When I was close to the 3 mile mark I had to turn around because he was on his way back down the mountain. By the end he ran all the way back down and up probably 1.5 miles to meet me again. Jeez he was SO fast and in tip top shape. He told me that if he doesnt run a 4:30 minute mile it is not good for him. I can only wish to do that haha However, even though I am sore, I am glad that I was able to see the full view of Barcelona and all of the people who go and run, walk their dogs, and bike there.
When we got home I met their Aunt who speaks zero English so I was tutoring myself on how to communicate and all she could do was laugh at me! I tried but majority of the time it didn't make sense. We all ate a meet they called pot roast or roast beef (which it looks nothing like either in America) and it had a brown sauce on there, there were fried potato balls, and strawberries. Everything was excellent yet again! After dinner Nacho and Patricia went across the street and the kids and I had a movie night. Needless to say the movie was in Spanish so I was completely lost the whole time. Guillermo had to keep translating for me which I am sure annoyed him.After the movie I tucked the kidddos in bed and blew kissses and wished them good night.
Tomorrow some girls and I are going to go explore Barcelona again and hopefully we won't get too lost! In the evening I am going to watch Alejandra's school play and we are going to Tomasz's to eat which should be interesting because they want me to try a specialty and it sounds very spicy! Tabasco sauce, peppers, spices etc. on top of potatoes! Anyway it is midnight here and it is going to be an early morning for me!
Adios!
Kelsey
For coffee break Tayler, Kenzie, Abby and I went to Dr. Coffee in the square and had some delicious drinks! I got a macchiato and it was perfect (see picture below). It was very warm today, all of the teachers were saying it is very unusual that it is this warm. When we got back to school I was pretty much done for the day other than a girls class (Tayler's class) and we learned about Christopher Columbus. It was good to get a refresher on my history since it is not my best subject. At 3:00 Guillermo and his class got to play soccer with their dad's for a reward for doing so well. For a little bit I got to see Nacho and Guillermo play with each other and they were good!! I was very proud.
On the walk home Nacho brought up the idea that I should go running with him and of course I said yes thinking it would be a short run. Oh no he said, "Eh okay we will go for an hour. It will only be 10 or so kilometers up a mountain." Once he said this my mouth dropped open since I am so out of shape. I had to warn him that it was not going to be pretty haha Patricia wished me good luck and how I would represent all women in the mountains. Not only was I going to run UP a mountain but he asked if it was okay if we took the motorcycle, of course I said yes!!!! Mom, I wore a helmet and like my previous post the male that I rode with not only knew how to drive, he knew not to hurt me, and we did not go too far only like 20 minutes away with traffic ;) It is a law that you have to wear a helmet if you are on a motorcycle which is very good.
On the way to the mountain I was not for sure how to hand on and I know that Nacho thought I was a weirdo since I put my hands on his side which I thought was awkward since he is my host dad haha Finally after seeing other people on bikes I noticed where the handle bars are to hang on which helped! We were weaving in and out of traffic and were right next to cars a long the way, at one point I just closed my eyes because I was nervous that I would fly off somehow even though he was very cautious. On the way to the mountain I was able to see the hospital where Nacho works which was big and the cancer and tendon hospital that is very famous- they work with New York. When we got half way up the mountain he told me a good place to get good and a gin and tonic for dessert! The place looks over the entire city of Barcelona. I cannot describe in words how pretty it is!!!!! I have few pictures below but it does not do justice because I was running while taking them and you cannot see the whole city. While I was running I kept thinking to myself aw this is so pretty yet I hate this since I was running up hill the majority of the time. Nacho was trying to stay with me but I told him to just go ahead if I was too slow, he stayed with me for 2 or so miles and when I started slowing down I finally made him run ahead. When I was close to the 3 mile mark I had to turn around because he was on his way back down the mountain. By the end he ran all the way back down and up probably 1.5 miles to meet me again. Jeez he was SO fast and in tip top shape. He told me that if he doesnt run a 4:30 minute mile it is not good for him. I can only wish to do that haha However, even though I am sore, I am glad that I was able to see the full view of Barcelona and all of the people who go and run, walk their dogs, and bike there.
When we got home I met their Aunt who speaks zero English so I was tutoring myself on how to communicate and all she could do was laugh at me! I tried but majority of the time it didn't make sense. We all ate a meet they called pot roast or roast beef (which it looks nothing like either in America) and it had a brown sauce on there, there were fried potato balls, and strawberries. Everything was excellent yet again! After dinner Nacho and Patricia went across the street and the kids and I had a movie night. Needless to say the movie was in Spanish so I was completely lost the whole time. Guillermo had to keep translating for me which I am sure annoyed him.After the movie I tucked the kidddos in bed and blew kissses and wished them good night.
Tomorrow some girls and I are going to go explore Barcelona again and hopefully we won't get too lost! In the evening I am going to watch Alejandra's school play and we are going to Tomasz's to eat which should be interesting because they want me to try a specialty and it sounds very spicy! Tabasco sauce, peppers, spices etc. on top of potatoes! Anyway it is midnight here and it is going to be an early morning for me!
Adios!
Kelsey
The twins playing with the box (Jorge and Pablo age 2)
View from the mountain
Beautiful
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